Innocent Doesn't Always Mean Free
by HermioneGrangerTwin
Summary: The Prisoners of Azkaban aren't always guilty. Not quite sure what the rating will be...T for now
1. Chapter 1

Innocent Doesn't Always Mean Free

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter…and I'm about tired of these. Jo will not sue us! She loves FanFiction!

If I had known that helping that poor soul Neville Longbottom would have landed me here, I'm not sure I would have. But I'm so glad I did, for if I hadn't, I would have never met Ronald Weasley. Now that I'm sure he's dead, my heart doesn't beat, my soul doesn't exist. I feel numb, like I've been dumped in a pool of ice water. If the dementors were to Kiss me now, I wouldn't know the difference.

And yet I know I would, for every time one passes my cell, I remember that day. The day Ron left us, the day I sobbed for hours, the day I begged him to stay. I would have willing stayed in the rain that night for hours if I had thought it would make him come back. Unwillingly, I begin crying again, then remembering another day. That glorious and now saddening day. The day I realized that life wouldn't wait for me to tell him. The day I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him like there was no tomorrow, for I wasn't sure there was going to be. He lifted me off my feet and spun me around, and I could have cried with joy.

This memory makes me sob all the harder, for I know now that will never happen again, I will never be able to kiss his lips. I close my eyes and strain to feel the numbness again, to forget the pain. I think about the woman in the next cell who laughs every time she hears someone's crying. I feel pity for her, despite her evil, pity that she will never feel loved or cared for. Then I realize that the opportunity has now left me and I begin to sob. I decide that I won't be able to forget completely, so I try to remember. Remember everything so that I might find what has gone wrong, what happened to my first and only love.

So I'll backtrack. I don't know how long ago, for I've lost all track of time. Back to the day it all started, the day I made a discovery that would change my life.


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh my God." I couldn't believe it. There was no way.

"What? Hermione, love, are you alright?" Ron said coming behind me and wrapping his long arms around my waist.

"I can't...It's not..."

"Hermione?"

"Ron," I started, not quite sure how to tell him. "I think we are about to..." I stopped, turned around, and decided to start over. "Ron, you are going to become a completely different person soon."

"What? Hermione, you aren't making sense."

"We are going to be parents."

He said nothing, but stood, with his mouth hanging open, taking in what I just told him. His hands dropped to his sides.

"Ron? Honey?"

"You must be joking." He was grasping for anything.

"No. Ron, I wouldn't joke about something like this." I paused. "Are you really this uneager for a family?" Tears welled up in my eyes. "I mean, the last time we talked about it, you were ready to start, to do what we had planned since before we got married. Have you changed your mind? Is there something wrong with me? Something wrong with having a child with you?" I felt rejected, unloved, and extremely angry. Angry beyond words.

"No! Love," he said soothingly, wrapping his arms around me. "I want this more than anything in the entire world."

"I was hoping you'd say that." I kissed him passionately, and wrapped my arms around his neck.

He smiled into my lips and lifted me off my feet like he did the first time, the first time his lips touched mine and the first time in my entire life that I knew I was doing something right. My arms tightened around his neck and I held on tighter, never wanting him to go away. I didn't think I would ever lose that teenage sweethearts feel around him. He infuriated and provoked me, but he was the only one allowed to kiss me like this. His tongue lightly touched my bottom lip and I opened my mouth accepting him in. I broke away.

"I love you so much."

"I should hope so, as you are currently carrying my child." I dropped my head back and laughed, knowing that I would always be happy with him, always feel like my world was in his presence.

"How are we going to tell our parents?"

"Hermione," he laughed. "You say that like a teenager who just got engaged."

--Flashback--

As I looked at the sunset on the hill, my insides melted. It was stunning, absolutely beautiful. I smiled at Ron and kissed him lightly. "This is perfect," I said, reaching for his hand.

"It took practice, but you know the saying," he said, taking it and entwining our fingers.

"You are so cocky!" I said. "You so ruined the moment."

"I think the moment will survive," he said, kissing me full on the lips, and putting his other hand to my face.

"I think you may be right." I said breathlessly, sitting down in the soft grass and pulling him down to sit next to me.

"Aren't I always?"

I shook my head and rolled my eyes, wondering how on earth I still found his irritating jokes cute. He was never this cocky before... or maybe he was, when he knew we weren't in danger. I couldn't remember, so I shook my head. "You must be in a mood today."

"I don't know why, but I feel so...happy." He smiled mischievously, like he knew something I didn't. Like he was plotting something. The idea made my heart race. I wanted to know - no - I had to know what he was thinking. I narrowed my eyes, but said nothing and looked at the full picnic basket in front of me.

"Are you ready to eat?" I asked him, realizing how stupid that question was. Ron was always ready to eat.

"Yes!"

We slowly ate our way through the basket, and the moon was coming out as we reached the bottom. I saw a glimmer inside the basket, like there was something shiny inside. I reached for the sparkle and my fingers wrapped around something corporeal. Something small and gold.

"Hermione," Ron asked me, with the deepest blue shining in his eyes. "Will you marry me?" All the confidence had left him, and he looked completely vulnerable as he asked me. The look paralyzed my vocal cords, and though I opened and closed my mouth trying to get something to come out, all I got was a squeak.

"Oh, well..." he seemed to shrink half a foot. "I suppose I was a bit...overenthusiastic."

"No!" I finally managed to eke out. "Ron, I want to marry you more than I've wanted anything in my life. I've wanted it since...Since..." But thankfully, I didn't have to think of the first time, for Ron wrapped me in his arms and kissed me.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you, too." And again, he kissed me, like he'd never kissed me before. His kiss sang into me, it told me exactly what he felt, and how much he loved me. I kissed him back with everything I had. Then a thought struck me and I gasped in the kiss.

He pulled back. "What?"

"How am I going to tell my dad that I am getting married at eighteen?"

--End Flashback--

"Don't make fun! I was so scared that he would burst out and hurt you," I said, looking through my closet for an outfit to wear, wondering how long it would be until I grew out of them.

"Why? Why would he have hurt me?" he asked, with his head sticking out of his closet.

"For corrupting his little girl," I said, with all seriousness, turning to look at him. "For brainwashing me into marrying you."

"That's ridiculous."

"It's a good thing I made you stay home while I told them; my dad flew off the handle. Mum had to calm him down for hours before he got out of his rage at you."

"You never told me that!" he exclaimed, incredulous, coming over to me and standing in front of me so he could look at my face. It usually bothered me when he did this, because when I lie, he can always tell. I don't know if it's that I'm such a bad liar, or if it's because of the connection we have, but he knows. He _always_ knows.

"I didn't think I needed to. Plus, you were terrified when you first met him and he thought you were my boyfriend. He showed you the body shaped gun target, and I thought you were going to freak. I remember you asking me if he really wanted that to be you, and I said that he would look for any reason to. You gulped and looked at me, practically begging me to help you. So I told Dad we weren't dating, that we were just friends, and told him to lay off."

"I'm sure he reacted well to that."

"Yes! Just splendidly!" I said, sarcastically. "He said that by the look in my eyes that we would soon be more than friends, and that when we were he wouldn't have to make the speech again."

Ron laughed and said, "They knew you better than you knew yourself."

"Oh I knew, in the depths of my mind. But it refused to tell the rest of me. I was only fourteen, almost fifteen. I hadn't even began to fathom my love for you." Ron gave me a confused look. "I knew I felt something more than friendship for you, but I wasn't sure what it was. Whether it was love or something else. If you had asked me out, I'm not sure what I would have said."

"Yet, you felt it necessary to lecture me about asking you as a last resort."

"You can just shut your mouth, Ronald Weasley. I don't want to hear it."

"I think I've touched a nerve. Maybe I should play with you for awhile."

"You do and I'll sic my dad on you!"

"I'm so scared!" He feigned fear. "I'll just hide in a closet now."

"Ha ha ha," I said sarcastically. "That's just witty. You should just quit your job as an Auror and become a comedian. I'm sure you'll get rave reviews."

"What?" He said. "I've stopped listening to what you say, because half of it is words that will mean nothing in a few hours."

"Oh, sometimes I can't stand you," I said, turning my back to him.

He came up behind me and whispered in my ear. "You know you love it, and me despite my sense of humor."

"Who ever said I loved you?"

"I believe you did, when you agreed to marry me."

"Agreed?! You guilted me into it!"

"And how did I do that? I was accepting the fact that you were going to say no."

"You gave me the sad, reproachful eyes. How could I say no?"

"That actually worked? I'll have to use that more often."

"Actually, after we were married for a couple of years, I grew immune to the sad eyes. They don't work on me now," I lied, knowing full well that the sad eyes would always work. I hoped with a passion that they wouldn't work, that by some miracle she was now immune to the sad eyes, and I could ignore them. And that he wouldn't know I was lying. _Oh please, please, please, don't let him know I'm lying._

"Oh really? Let's test that," Ron said, trying, unsuccessfully, to turn on the sad eyes. It was no good when he tried. _Oh thank God. And he thought I was telling the truth… YES! I must be getting better at this!_

"Nope. Not working."

"Bugger. And I could have sworn you were lying." _Then again, maybe not._

"Ron, I need to go to work."

"Bugger," he repeated, and his eyes were sad. _Oh no, not now. I just convinced him – _"Do you really have to go?"

I promptly looked at his forehead, instead of his eyes. "Yes, baby. I have to go, if I don't want to be late," I said, kissing him on the cheek. "I love you."

"I love you, too," he said, touching his lips softly to mine. I broke it off before I got into it.

If I had known what was going to happen within an hour, I would have held him longer, kissed him harder, loved him more before I left. But I didn't. Life sucks ass.

A/N: Thanks to Amanda who is the _**first**_ person to read this!

Sorry about the long wait for Chapter 2! I didn't intend it to take this long (actually it shouldn't have) but school has been _crazy_ and I almost finished this a little after the first chapter came up, but I never got to put the right ending on it! Really _really_ sorry! 


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